


Hiding in Plain Sight

by miss_whimsy



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9250517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/miss_whimsy
Summary: Danny didn't talk about it, because what was there to say? The very words conjured up visions in people's minds and either you were someone who had to turn a light switch on and off fifteen times before leaving the house or you were exaggerating. So he learned not to tell people and took pride in being a “control freak”. It was easier that way.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StupidPoetry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StupidPoetry/gifts).



Danny didn't talk about it, because what was there to say? The very words conjured up visions in people's minds and either you were someone who had to turn a light switch on and off fifteen times before leaving the house or you were exaggerating. So he learned not to tell people and took pride in being a “control freak”. It was easier that way. 

 

Henley didn't want to fall in love with Danny. She tried her best not to. She reminded herself over and over that he was an asshole. He watched what she ate and chose what she wore and got very confused when she questioned anything.

So it was depressing to accept a flower from someone with your pulse racing and admit that maybe you were in love with the bastard after all.

“Danny, this is beautiful. Thank you.”

He'd already turned away and Henley knew better than to bother him right then. He had a process, before every show, that he didn't like to have disturbed. 

There was a knock at the door and Danny hesitated, his hand hovering over a silk handkerchief. 

“Uh, Henley,” he said quietly, without looking at her. “Could you…?”

“Sure,” she said and pulled open the door, slipped out into the hall. “Can I help you?” she asked the theater assistant.

“I need to ask Mr Atlas something about the lighting cues here,” he said pointing at the sheet on his clipboard. 

“Not yet,” Henley said and checked her watch. “He needs another five minutes.”

“But it’ll just take a minute.”

“You’ll have your answer in six minutes then,” Henley said, straightening up and folding her arms. She leaned back against the door and watched the guy shuffle away. 

She checked her watch again and sighed. Four minutes.

 

“Dylan is driving me crazy,” Jack said, collapsing into the booth opposite Danny. “You have to save me.”

“Uh, no,” Danny said, a little too seriously. He was reading the menu with a special kind of focus, as though he didn’t know it off by heart. “What’s he doing exactly?”

“Everything.” Jack grabbed the menu out of Danny’s hand and put it back in the rack at the edge of the table. “Today I’m teaching Merritt how to pick a lock.”

“I was looking at that,” Danny said, pointing to the menu, but he didn’t move to pick it up again.

“No, you weren’t,” Jack said. “You always order the same thing. Come on, Danny, I need a break. You have to get him to stop.”

Danny was still frowning at the menu. “What do you think I can do?”

“Anything. Anything would work. You’re his favourite.”

“I am not.”

“I might believe you if you weren’t still talking to the menu,” Jack said. He plucked it from the stand and handed it back to Danny. “I’m sorry. I was rude. I won’t do it again.”

Danny nodded a silent thank you and went back to reading the menu.

“Can I order for you while you’re reading it?” Jack asked, with just a hint of a laugh in his voice. 

“Sure,” Dylan said, without looking up. “I’m not Dylan’s favourite.”

Jack laughed and laughed forward, tapping his hands on the table. “Yeah, you are. You’re the only one who doesn’t know it.”

 

“I can’t,” Merritt insisted. “I physically can’t do it. Don’t ask me to.”

Dylan frowned at him. “It’s just meat. You eat it.”

“Yeah,” Merritt said slowly, “when it’s cooked. I can’t just touch it raw like that.”

“Why not?” 

“The same reason that Danny can’t say certain words, you know. We all have a thing.”

Dylan put down the knife he was holding and watched Merritt across the kitchen counter. “What do you mean, Danny can’t say certain words?”

“Have you not noticed?” Merritt asked and chuckled softly. “I’d have thought you’d have picked up on it, since you spend so much of your time focused on him. Cockroach. That’s one. He can’t say it.”

“Like a speech impediment?”

“No, more like a fear that if he says the word cockroach, the next room he walks into is going to be filled with the little critters.”

Dylan kept on staring at him.

“I swear I’m not fucking with you. Why would I?” Merritt asked. “I can’t touch raw meat. Danny has… well, I think I know what it is, but he might disagree. I’d never ask him about it. It's none of my business. And he seems to be on top of it.”

Dylan nodded slowly and picked up the knife again, thinking. 

“So, you’re not going to help with dinner.”

“No, I am not.”

 

The blade of the guillotine glinted in the sunlight shining through Danny's living room window and a thought flashed through his head, so clear and vivid that he felt bile rise up in his throat. He dropped the rope he was holding and stepped away.

"I need some air," he told the room at large, though no one was really paying attention besides Lula, who sat up from where she'd been lying on the base of the guillotine and watched him leave.

He sat down heavily at the top of the stairs and started to breathe, deep slow breaths. He reached into his pocket for a coin and started to move it across his fingers. One, two, three...

Lula's boots appeared in his line of vision and then her hand landed on his knee as she sat down next to him.

"Sometimes I think about dying," she said, lightly, as if it was nothing.

He swallowed, stared down at the bottom of the stairs.

She rested her chin on his shoulder. "Like just then, I could have tripped and fallen down the stairs and broken my neck. And you wouldn't have been able to catch me. And you'd be sad and Merritt and Dylan would be sad. And Jack would obviously be devastated, but would he really be that devastated? I mean we haven't been together that long. It's not like he loves me yet. He probably doesn't love me. Maybe he's only with me because I'm here and showing interest in him. I bet he's bored of all my chatter and complaining to you guys all the time about me and you're just too nice to say. But then maybe you all hate me too and the only reason you actually put up with me is because Dylan told you to, and when Dylan starts to regret his choice then I'll get kicked out and I'll be all alone again and no one will care, so maybe it would be better if I just did fall down stairs."

Danny had turned his head to watch her at some point and when she finished she smiled and kissed his cheek.

"You know how it is, don't you Atlas?"

He nodded.

“Yeah, I know how it is.”

 

Danny froze for a moment; just a moment. He was sure no one noticed. None of the others had so much as looked his way. The girl he was talking to was smiling and nodding as he explained what was going to happen. The audience were eating it up.

“You’re doing great.”

Of course, Dylan had noticed, though. Dylan noticed everything. Trust Danny to mess up when Dylan was watching.

“I'm serious,” Dylan said again in his ear, as though he could read Danny's thoughts. “You've got this. Look at her, she's eating out of your hand.”

Danny relaxed slightly and focused again on the trick he was performing.

He couldn't forget that it had happened, though, even when they were done for the night and walking home, he was still turning it over and over in his head. 

“It was a good show,” Dylan said quietly falling into step beside him. “You did really well.”

“They were good,” Danny said. “I messed up.”

“When?”

“You know when.” Danny sighed. “I forgot what I was doing.”

“For a second,” Dylan said with a smile. “Everyone does that. And no one noticed.”

“You noticed.”

“No one else noticed,” Dylan assured him.

“You don’t know that.”

“Sure I do,” Dylan said and grabbed Danny’s arm to stop him walking, letting the others turn the corner ahead of them so that they were alone on the street. “I watch you more than the others do.”

Danny looked down at Dylan’s hand, still holding his arm. “Why?”

Dylan smiled and let go of Danny’s arm. “Because you’re amazing. You’re the best at this.”

“Am I?”

“You know you are,” Dylan laughed. “You just forget sometimes. But that’s what I’m here for. To remind you how good you are.”

Danny met Dylan’s eyes, not quite believing him.

“I’m just going to have to keep reminding you, I guess,” Dylan added gently, nudging his arm as they continued to walk down the street. “Luckily, I kind of like spending time with you.”

Maybe, Danny thought, one day, he’d start believing. 

One day they’d get there.


End file.
